Have you noticed

[maineguy110]

I was wondering if you have noticed,that when you have shot a deer and it takes off. That when you have found it most the time it is facing the way it came from.

[gd357]

I've seen that to some extent, but it's very dependant on what type of terrain/cover the deer are in when shot.

gd

[Rocky Raab]

I'll brave the danger of anthropomorphization (whew!) and make a guess.

A deer gets instantly shocked, surprised and hurt - seemingly out of the blue. He doesn't know where the pain and danger came from, so he runs in the one direction he knows is safe: back where he just was.

[L. Cooper]

I think the direction it is facing as it dies is just random. I don't think I have ever noticed any real tendancy to "go back" as opposed to "continue on" either. Just too many variables.

A running deer with a fatal shot falls because it lost consciousness. I"ve seen them run head on into a tree at full speed because they are not even able to see any more as their brain shuts down due to lack of blood supply. I don't think any decisions are being made at that point.

[multibeard]

I trailed a nice 8 point thru 3 beds before getting smart and leaving it to come back with help later to work it out of a 40 acre pine planting.

It was only in a ways bedded down watching its back track when my partner jumped him. He had trouble getting it to come out in the corner of the 40 I was watching. I got one shot and hit it hard but didn't know for sure where the hit was.

I tracked it for 1/2 mile, through 3 beds. It appeared that it was hit in the front as the blood was always in the end of the bed away from me. When I finally caught up it was laying facing its back track and was hit hard in the knee almost taking off the leg.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I would have to think a solid hit would make for a random direction it fell unless like an archery shot where it took off to bed later..then I could see it watching it's back track for a predator to follow..this reminds me of a lesson I learned when a kid playing with deer in their woods...if I spooked them on a ridge, they most all the time headed over the hill and would run at an angle down the bank to the bottoms..then head up the bottoms...what I learned and this happened often enough I still apply my theory to this day with success..is they will run down the hill..up the valley,, then climb back to the ridge..lay there and watch you track them up the valley..then they run off when see ya...about that time, you will see the tracks you were following climb to the top..surprise!.... well many a time I have seen them run down the hill...I stay on the ridge and have come up on them standing and watching for me to follow their tracks up the valley...another surprise..this time is on them..oh the fun of hunting..we all know it never works the same time all the time but is the fun part of it..to out fox the fox...sometimes you win, others>>???...like the time I watched deer run their trail up a bank and around a huge rock...I figured they would be watching for me to follow their trail so I went around the rock and came up from the other side...sure enough, all 3 were standing with their backs facing me, looking for me to walk around the trail side of the rock..I didn't shoot any of them that day..just watched.....time now to sit back with my coffee and reflect on the sunset of reds, blues, orange and pink I sat in last few nights on top my rock high on a field knull ..was as though I was standing in it...wow...as for those in the west and all the snow, this is also where I stood one night when snow was a hot pink color...guess reflection of the sunset made it that color but was the first and only time I ever seen it snow hot pink flakes...now post that in your memory photo lab.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Got another deer today..Jan 1...I watched for the direction it was on the ground..still facing the way it ran....